Determining when a piece of equipment has reached the end of its useful life cycle in the company's overall reliability strategy can often be difficult if not looked at in the proper perspective. This is especially true in today's business environment where the impetus is placed on the reduction of manufacturing cost and improving overall plant reliability. After all, equipment reliability directly relates to profitability and in the end, overall customer satisfaction - the only true indicator for increasing profitability. More . . .

Editor's Note: This bi-monthly series of articles on root cause failure analysis is from our good friends at the Reliability Center.